Fate on the High Seas
by ohmytheon
Summary: Sansa Stark has lived a comfortable life in nobility, with maybe not the future she wants with a cruel fiance, but her world is about to change upon being kidnapped for ransom by the elusive pirate captain of the High Garden.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:** Okay, so this is a wild, Pirate AU dream that I could not get out of my head. I thought I'd posted the first part on here already, but I guess I didn't. It's been ages since I've written for it, so the second part is meh, but I'm rather fond of how this came out. Also, this is my first femslash fic, but I am so weak for Margaery/Sansa that it isn't even funny.

 **Disclaimer:** I own nothing except for my brain in which this ridiculous idea came about.

* * *

 _This is not going to end pleasantly,_ was the only thing that Sansa could think, which was absolutely ridiculous. Pleasantly? Of course it wasn't going to end pleasantly, not when she'd been tossed into a room, blindfolded and hands tied in front of her, with nothing but her nightgown to protect her. At least they'd allowed her to put on her house slippers before they'd unceremoniously kidnapped her and dragged her to their ship. And they hadn't gagged her either. Small miracles, right?

Sansa sighed and huddled in a ball in the corner of the room, as if she could protect herself then. Outside of the room was utter chaos. From what she'd seen after waking up and before the blindfold had been put on her, there had been a fire in the town. That had served as a distraction. In her attempt to see what else was happening, she'd ran into two rather nasty individuals, but her attempt to flee had been short-lived. There had been fire, people running around, and a lot of fighting. Now all she could do was listen to the noises. Screams pierced the air, but they were distant, in the town still. Men shouting at each other and giving orders was closer. Those people were on the ship. She bit her lip. Those were not good men.

And then the ship started moving. She rolled to the side, nearly smacking her face against the wall, but threw her tied up hands in front of her before she could do so. Clumsily, she pulled herself back into the sitting position and listened to the lapping of the waves against the side of the boat. Her heart began to race in her chest. They were leaving the city. They were taking her with them! She wanted to scream out for help, but she also didn't want the men to come back and bother her. She'd heard stories of the things men like these did to women and girls like her. It was not _pleasant_. The urge to cry crawled into her throat. If her father had been alive, he would've rescued her.

 _Maybe Robb will come and save me,_ she thought weakly.

Though she was uncomfortable and scared, she was also exhausted and the almost gentle rocking of the ship eventually lulled Sansa to sleep. She laid on a pile of ropes and bags, sleeping fitfully and dreaming of her daring big brother, when the door banged open and startled her awake. "Who's there?" she shouted, twisting her head around though she could not see through the blindfold.

"She's a pretty girl," a gravelly man's voice announced.

"It'd be a shame to damage those goods," another man added, "or a good time."

Sansa shook at the thought of what those words might mean for her. "Please, my family has money! They can pay for my ransom!"

"Don't mean we can't have a bit of fun in the meantime," the second man told her as he grabbed her by the bindings on her wrists and jerked her up. She stumbled, falling onto her knees, but was then pulled to her feet and thrown back against the wall. She pulled in on herself, still unable to see, and tried to scoot against the wall, but she only bumped into someone, who let out a laugh. "Looks like she's trying to get away from me, Balon."

"Not very well," the first man said as he snatched her up.

Sansa let out a squeal and attempted to kick the man in the shins or the balls, but she was only wearing slippers and managed to hurt herself more than she hurt him. Both men laughed. The only thing she could do was let out a cry. "You've…you've no honor!"

"I don't think anyone has ever accused a pirate of having honors." The man pulled on her blindfold so that the cloth fell down around her neck. Now she was able to get a good look at the men that were harassing her. They were much older than her, ugly and dirty, covered in soot from the fire that had ravaged the town. One of them looked like he had a broken nose. She jerked away from him, but the man grabbed her and pulled her close to him. "Hey, there, darling, now be good. I'm just gonna–"

"You were just going to what?" a voice rang curiously behind them.

The man dropped Sansa immediately and she fell to the floor. She scooted as far away from them as possible, back into the same corner she'd slept in, and watched as the men staggered into a line next to each other. They stood straight, but one of the men's hands were shaking at his side. He had to fold them behind his back to hide it. "We weren't doing anything, Captain! Just…just examining the goods."

"The goods?" The Captain's voice was thoughtful and husky. There was not a care in the world in that voice. Still, from the backs of the men that Sansa could see, whoever this Captain was, he was fearsome enough to strike fear into these two men when there was only one of them. What kind of terrifying pirate's ship was she on? Would they make her walk the plank? She'd heard stories of pirates making their captives step off the ship into deep, shark infested waters. "Since when are people 'goods'? For some reason, I thought people were human beings."

Both men stepped back as the Captain stepped forward, so that Sansa was able to see the profile of the Captain. He wore a rather extravagant outfit for a dingy pirate captain, colors of greens and blues and a large hat that swooped over his face. His boots were shiny too. But Sansa could see the tears in the jacket where swords had just barely missed their mark and were later stitched up and there was a blood stain on the hem of the left sleeve.

"But this girl is just spoiled trash!" one man let out.

In a flash, there was a swishing sound and the man found the flat of the Captain's sword pressed against his cheek. He actually whimpered. "You should be kind to our guest," the Captain said in a rather sweet tone, "instead of a rude, blithering fool. What kind of impression are you hoping to give her? That we're just a bunch of dirty rapscallions that take whatever we desire and toss out what remains when we're through? Is that what you want to be known for? Because if so, there are other ships you can live on."

"No, Captain, no!" the man pleaded. "This is my ship. This is my home."

"Well, you're acting more like a rabid dog than human and rabid dogs belong on neither a ship nor in a home. I told you when you joined my crew; and I'll tell you one more time. If you're going to be on this ship, you're going to act accordingly. Pillage and plunder all you want, but the second you start acting like an animal in heat, I'll cut your balls off and feed them to the sharks. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Captain!" both men said at once, actually saluting the man.

Sansa found it all sort of astounding. She'd never heard of a pirate captain like this one before. He seemed almost…admirable. This ship was apparently being run more like a military ship than a pirate one. It all made her feel sort of dazed and at a loss. What was going on here? What had she been dragged into? The men spared her one last glance, both seemingly apologetic and almost a bit scared, and then vacated the room, leaving Sansa alone with the Captain. She stood there, her heart still beating wildly. When the Captain's attention finally turned to her, Sansa looked down at the ground. She didn't know what to do. The sound of the Captain's boots resounded in her head until they were right in front of her. She fidgeted.

"What do you want with me?" Sansa finally blurted out, unable to hold it in anymore.

The Captain bent down to her level and, with surprisingly delicateness, put their fingers on Sansa's chin and forced her to look them in the face. "Why, I thought that'd be obvious," the Captain said, "I want you, Lady Sansa Stark."

In all her years, Sansa never thought that she would see this. Crouched before her was not the scary and scarred pirate captain that haunted children's stories, but a rather beautiful woman. She had something of a pinched face that made her undoubtedly noticeable and a crooked smile that seemed to belong to her alone. She had her brown hair tied in a side ponytail and it hung over her right shoulder, a bit knotted and wet from the rain outside. Her eyes were a startling green and spoke of all the mischievous deeds she had done as a pirate.

"You're…"

"A woman, I know," the female Captain finished, letting out a throaty laugh. Her voice was deeper than most women's, but now that Sansa thought about it, she should have recognized it as female. But she'd never heard of a female pirate before, hadn't even considered women to be capable of being pirates, much less a captain of a ship. Women were supposed to be proper and such; they were supposed to defer to men. Women did not run ships filled with unsavory men and beast-like people. "Don't worry; most people are shocked when they find out who sails _High Garden_."

"This is the _High Garden_?" Sansa gasped. She'd heard so many wild tales about this ship over the past two years. It was supposedly the fastest ship on the seas. The Captain was a gleeful character that snuck onto people's ships, stole their jewels and money, only to jump ship back onto the _High Garden_ and sail off into the sunset. No one could ever pinpoint out who the Captain was though. It made sense now. No one could figure out who captained the ship because no one would ever dare think a woman was the captain. "How did you…?"

The Captain waved a hand in the air dismissively. "It's a long, tedious story, but it's needless to say that I run a tight ship these days. You won't be harmed while we make our journey across the sea as we wait to do business with your family."

Sansa glanced down at her bound hands. "So I was kidnapped for ransom."

"More or less," the Captain said. When she pulled a small knife out of her belt, Sansa jumped a little, but the woman held one hand up, almost in surrender, and then carefully cut the bindings on Sansa's hands. "No need for these."

"Are you not worried that I will try to escape?"

The Captain grinned again. "Not unless you're part mermaid. Now that would be a find."

Taking a deep breath, Sansa raised her chin and proclaimed, "My brother Robb will hunt this ship down and rescue me before your plans come to fruition. He's a captain with a powerful vessel and many a men at his command."

"Your brother, hm? And not your beloved fiancé?" The Captain tilted her head, looking at her carefully. Sansa could not help but blush under such an intense gaze and looked away again. This woman's eyes were too intense. "I considered bartering with your fiancé, but no, it appears as if my first thought was correct."

"And what is that?"

"Your fiancé can buy another wife, but your brother cannot buy another sister."

Sansa could not stop herself from visibly deflating. She turned away from the other woman, biting her lip and willing no tears to spring to her eyes. The Captain's words had no doubt struck a chord within Sansa, as true and painful as they were. Once upon a time, she had truly believed that she loved her fiancé, before he'd asked for her hand in marriage, and that he had loved her, but long ago were those days. Not long after gaining her parents' permission, he had turned cold towards her, distant, sometimes even angry and violent. She'd learned her lessons on how to keep his temper at bay, but it was almost more miserable smiling in public and clinging to him like a tamed dog that brought her down more than anything.

She was good at hiding it though, excellent at playing pretend. So how did this pirate figure out her charade when even her own family could not?

"You…you know nothing of me," Sansa whispered to the floor.

The Captain reached forward and grabbed Sansa's now unbound wrist, startling her, but it was the intense look in the woman's green eyes that caught her off guard more than her actions. "I know that you've been bound for hours and yet you do not wear bruises here, not unlike the bruises on your sides where you've been beaten by a man who promised to take care of you."

Sansa jerked her wrist away, rubbing at it, but found that the Captain was right. She bore no bruises despite being bound. Now that she looked back on it, she realized that the bounds had been rather loose and never constricting. It was like the mere thought of being tied up and kidnapped had kept her at bay more than the actual bindings. "How do you know such things?" she demanded. " _No one_ knows about that."

"We all have our secrets, my dear," the Captain said, "and some of us have our ways of finding out those secrets." She stood up, towering over Sansa, but not in an imposing way. It was more regal than anything else, strangely reminding Sansa of the royal family. "You need not worry about such things happening to you on here, Lady Stark. The first man to try anything on you will be gutted like a fish. I'll see to that personally. We pillage towns, rob the rich, and tease the Navy, but I'll have no woman scarred for a man's disgusting pleasure." She bowed slightly (to her, to the captive) and gave Sansa another wicked, little grin. "I shall call on you later. As of now, I've a ship to run."

"Wait, my lady!" Sansa called. When the other woman stopped, Sansa flushed, but stood up nonetheless. "I mean, Captain."

The Captain arched a delicate brow. "Yes?"

"What is your name?" Sansa asked curiously. "You seem to know me, but I know next to nothing of who is holding me captive."

"Oh, how terribly rude of me for not introducing myself," the Captain sighed dramatically. "I daresay, I'm not used to spreading such information these days. It's a bit more difficult to hide who I am once a name is in the mix. But you deserve as such, my dear." For a pirate, this Captain spoke very carefully and almost more proper than Sansa herself, certainly more proper than Sansa's younger sister, Arya. It was disconcerting. "Captain Margaery Tyrell, at your service."

And with that, Captain Margaery swept out of the room, locking the door (more for Sansa's safety than any attempt to escape), leaving Sansa in a bit of a shocked state. She slumped to the ground again, feeling exhausted all at once with what had just happened. This was going to be a rather interesting sea voyage and ransom indeed. Perhaps it would not end so unpleasantly.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes:** I want to more write of this AU, as it's the first semi-slash thing that I've written and I've had more ideas for it, but I'm not sure. I actually had this written before I posted the first part, but I thought I'd posted this already. I'm terribly clueless.

* * *

Nearly an entire day passed before Sansa was given any true company. She wandered the room that she'd been placed in, unguarded and without anything tying her down, but hadn't bothered to try the door. She knew that it was locked, but she also knew that it was more for her safety than anything else. The one attempt on her earlier had been enough to instill any safeguards on her person in the Captain. The fact that the door was locked meant that their prisoner was not to be disturbed. It shouldn't have made Sansa feel any better, but it did. She was a prisoner, yes, but nothing terrible was to be done to her.

How so very different from the carefully scripted life she led with her fiancé…

And so Sansa spent her time examining the room until she was bored and then looking out the small port window. She'd been able to tell by the rocking of the boat that they were moving further out to sea. By the time she braved to glance through the window, she was left gaping at the rolling waves that the ship seemed to slip through. She had been on many ships before, thanks to the port in the city that her father governed over, but she'd never seen a ship that moved so seamlessly through the water like a snake through sand. But then she'd heard of all the stories about the _High Garden_. Apparently the ship lived up to those stories.

When she could see nothing but water for miles on out though, even watching them sail away grew tiresome and Sansa fell into a fitful, if not improper sleep. It was hard to look proper and decent when you were forced to sleep on a pile of ropes, she reasoned, as she drifted off. Dreams about her family came to her, her big brother searching for her and her little sister trying to steal away on the ship to join as well. In all the dreams, she wanted to scold her sister, Arya, but even the sight of her little sister in breeches and with a sword and calling her name made Sansa's heart swell in her sleep. When the dreams turned to her fiancé though, she grew restless and tossed about, stressed and confused about how she was supposed to feel.

"My lady?"

Sansa startled awake to find a gentle hand on her shoulder. When she blinked awake, she found a young girl standing before her, not the Captain. Sansa sat up and pulled away from the girl, not out of fear, but out of confusion of being woken up randomly. She was still on a pirate ship, after all. "Who are you?" Sansa demanded, trying her best to sound brave. "Are you a prisoner too?"

"Oh, no, my lady, no," the girl replied, looking surprised as well. She stood up straight and clasped her hands in front of her. Despite the extravagance of the female Captain of the ship, this girl came off as downright demure, proper even. She could've stood next to Sansa in town and she wouldn't have even blinked. What was this ship? "I'm the Captain's cousin, Alla." That was a slight shock in itself. This girl was the Captain's kin? The two did look similar in a way, but they acted completely different. Alla took a deep breath and stood up straight. "The Captain calls upon your presence in her private room. She asks if you would like to have dinner."

Sansa swallowed the knot in her throat, trying to shove any fear deep down. "Dinner?"

Alla gave her a curious look. "Surely my lady is hungry? It has been nearly a day since you've eaten. The Captain would like to apologize for taking so long to get things sorted. She does not want you to feel mistreated."

"I…" Mistreated? Sansa had been kidnapped! Being mistreated was par for the course, wasn't it? This was all sorts of confusing. Was her brother coming to find her? Was Joffrey? Sansa barely hid a shiver at the thought of her fiancé. What was coming to her when the fact that a pirate was calling on her didn't make her want to cry but the thought of her fiancé made her want to shake? "Yes, dinner would be…lovely."

With a bright smile appearing on her face, Alla bowed. "The Captain will be pleased."

She waited patiently as Sansa pulled herself to her feet and then straightened her clothes. Only then did she remember what she was wearing, nothing more than her nightgown, a bathrobe, and slippers. Her hair was a mess too, and she gingerly touched it and winced. She was having dinner with a pirate, for goodness' sake, but she couldn't bear the idea of looking like such a disaster while sitting in the same room as Captain Margaery. The young woman had been resplendent even in her pirate clothes, like she'd taken bits and pieces from the captains of other ships here and there to make her own outfit.

Alla seemed to catch scent of Sansa's sudden hesitance. "Oh, you need not worry about your appearance, Lady Stark. The Captain has set aside some time for you to clean yourself." She smiled shyly. "It's not much, being on a ship and all, but it's something." Feeling a tad bit better, Sansa nodded her head and began to follow the young girl out of the room and out onto the deck. Her eyes widened at the sight. The High Garden was larger than she'd anticipated and it was filled with life even at night as the crew ran it. She saw plenty of men walking about, shouting at each other, hauling lines, pushing barrels, and other things. Perhaps she shrank back at the sight of them, because Alla began to rush and smile even more pleasantly. "You do no need to be concerned with the men either. None of them will bother you. The Captain ensures the safety of all women aboard; lest any man wants to walk the plank, she says."

Biting her lip, Sansa could not help but keep an eye on the men until they stepped through another door and started down stairs. She kept her hands together as they walked into a small room where she could wash herself. No one else came inside after Alla shut the door and the girl was dutiful in adverting her gaze as Sansa stripped and began to clean her skin as best as she could. After pressing some sort of flowery scent on herself that Alla gave her, she took a brush and began to work at her hair. She wouldn't be able to put it into any of the intricate arrays that were in the style of her fiance's city, but she felt a hint of fondness at being able to allow her hair to rest over her shoulders. She had beautiful red hair that she'd inherited from her mother, something she didn't get to show off very often.

Before she could lament about the fact that she would still be in a nightgown and bathrobe, Alla held out a pretty light blue dress. "From the Captain." She gave an almost impish grin, different from all the looks she'd had before. "A part the spoils, you could say."

Meaning that the dress was stolen, just as Sansa had been. Still, it was better than nothing. She thanked the other girl and allowed Alla to help her into the dress. It was slightly smaller than what she was used to, being quite snug in the bosom, but the dress was beautiful. Sansa gave herself a few seconds to admire herself in the mirror. Her brothers would've gasped in horror if they'd seen her wear such a tightly knit dress in public. How many men would have stared at her? Then, she thought of the men on the ship and her shoulders sunk again. She didn't want any of them to stare at her. She was fine with Alla and the Captain, but the rest of them…

No, Captain Margaery promised her safety until Robb bartered for her. She would be as safe as one could be on a pirate ship, even if she was wearing a slightly scandalous outfit.

Nodding to Alla to let the other girl know that she was done, Alla walked out of the room again and through the ship. Sansa followed closely on her heels, still in her slippers, and kept her arms wrapped around her chest to make sure that she was covered as much as possible. Only a few of the crewmen actually glanced in her direction, quite a difference from what she was used to from sailors even in the Navy, but that still didn't make her any less nervous. She still felt out of sorts after all that had happened in the past day. This time yesterday, she'd been supping with her family. Now she was a prisoner, albeit a spoiled one, on the greatest pirate ship in history.

Alla stopped at a door and knocked, waiting to enter until she was told that she could come in. She gave Sansa a smile and waved her on in. Sansa opened her mouth and turned to question the girl when Alla shut the door, leaving Sansa alone in the room.

"I trust you feel at least a little better, yes?"

With a start, Sansa jumped around and saw Captain Margaery relaxing back in a chair behind a table. She had a leg thrown casually over one of the arms of the chair and she leaned diagonally in it, her other arm dangling over the side. The hat was gone and her hair was down, showing off every glorious wave of her light brown hair. The jacket she was wearing still hid the telltale signs of her female body and she was wearing breaches unlike most women, but there was no hiding just how beautiful she was. Despite the fact that she'd hidden her gender for so long, it was quite plain to see that she was very much a woman when looking her in the face.

An impish grin wound its way onto the Captain's face. "My apologies. I shouldn't have scared you like that." Her tone said that she felt guilty, but the look on her face said no such thing. She'd most likely found Sansa's jump to be amusing. Sansa couldn't stop the blush if she tried. She wanted to be brave, like her brother Robb, but it was hard to do that when she felt like she'd woken in a strange, new world.

Not knowing what to say, Sansa fiddled with her hands. "Alla said that you wanted to have dinner?"

"Yes, of course, I thought you might be hungry and I've no intention of making your duration here uncomfortable," Captain Margaery proclaimed as she swung her leg over the arm of the chair and then stood up. Sansa's heart jumped around frantically in her chest as the other woman swaggered towards her. She walked like a person that knew her way about a ship, but with extra hip movements that would've made Sansa's best friend Jeyne blush. "And truth be told, the company with someone as lovely as you sounded pleasant, my lady, if you can pardon my selfishness."

How Sansa did not jump again when Captain Margaery tucked a strand of her red hair behind her ear was beyond Sansa herself, but she felt all the air go out of her chest and her cheeks grow hot again. It was nothing like what the men earlier had tried on her. It wasn't…unpleasant. When the Captain smiled, it was filled with unusual delicacy and care. Her eyes were sharp and said everything that Sansa needed to know. If she needed space, then she would be given it. But strangely, she felt warmed by the other woman's touch and words.

And then, just she felt herself getting too hot under the gaze, Captain Margaery turned on her feet and walked back to her chair, waving a hand in the direction of the table. "Eat anything you like. Our cook may not be the chef that you're used to, but what he lacks in titles and experience he makes up for with creativity." The spread on the table wasn't as pristine and fancy as she was used to when it came to supping with her family or going out with Joffrey, but her stomach didn't care and neither did her eyes. Once Sansa looked at the food, she realized how famished she felt and she sat down, eager to begin.

As Sansa nervously put food on her plate (an appropriate amount for a woman that should not gain weight), Captain Margaery unbuttoned her dark green jacket and then tossed it on top of a chest that sat under a small window, not unlike the one in the room that Sansa had been kept in. She wore a simple white blouse underneath, tucked into her light green breeches. Now that the jacket was off, it was easier to see that she was a woman, as the swell of her breasts were more evident. Somehow, even in these clothes, she managed to look just as radiant as any woman of standing. Sansa could only imagine how stunning the Captain would've looked in a ball gown. She would've outshined any woman standing in the room with her.

"Have you always on the seas?" Sansa found herself asking.

Captain Margaery considered her words as she sat back down. "No, I was once like you."

Without meaning to, Sansa dropped her knife. "Like me?"

"I came from a very prominent family, very wealthy, very…stifling. I loved the sea growing up, but my parents thought that women on ships were unseemly. Sailing the seas was for men, so my brothers were all taught while I was left on shore and taught how to dance, sing, and look pretty. I was always so jealous of their adventures. My brother Loras is even in the Navy now."

The Captain smiled at that, though Sansa couldn't see why. The way she spoke of her brothers made it seem like she didn't begrudge them one bit, even still loved them in her own way, but the fact that one of her brothers probably wanted to arrest her sounded terribly tragic to Sansa. She couldn't help but picture Robb chasing down the High Garden on his ship, the Grey Wolf. The idea of anything happening to this woman suddenly didn't sound so appealing, even if it meant that Sansa could go home. But then… What would she be going home to: a harrowing life with a frightful fiancé that she didn't love and a life that she didn't know that she wanted?

"I was lucky that one of my father's men, an admiral and captain of his own ship, was fond of me. Whenever we went on trips, he taught me everything there was to know. His crew became something of a second family to me. I'd dress up like a boy and help them about whenever we were on the open sea." Captain Margaery picked up a mug and took a careful sip of it. She ran her finger around the lip of the mug, looking down into it like she could see her past in the liquid inside. "I knew it couldn't last forever though and that I'd eventually be forced into a life that I didn't want."

"But how did you go from sneaking around to being captain of a pirate ship?" Sansa asked incredulously.

Captain Margaery set the mug down and gave Sansa a guarded look. This was a woman that kept so many things close to the chest. She'd been able to hide her identity for years. She was incredible. "To be honest, so much has happened that I can barely remember, nor do I care to," the female captain admitted. "If you ask anyone in my family, they would tell you that I died, drowned at sea after being tossed overboard during a storm. Even the men that taught me everything I know think that I'm dead. It wounded me to leave my brothers behind and watch them fall into a life that was opposite of mine, but this…" She fingered the hilt of her sword that was hung over the back of her chair. "This is the life that I want, even without them. This ship is my home, my crew my family, the sea my love."

Remembering something from earlier, Sansa asked, "What about Alla? She said that she was your cousin."

At this, Captain Margaery smiled outright, and it was such a warm and proud smile that it nearly caught Sansa off guard. "All women given to the sea are cousins or sisters." The implication shook Sansa to her core. Of course she had heard the tales that women were bad luck on ships, but she could not fathom the idea that any honorable captain of a ship would allow a woman to be tossed overboard for simply existing. Robb would never do that. Then her thoughts turned to Joffrey and she shuddered. Captain Margaery tapped her fingers on her mug. "Those foolish men do not realize that the sea is a woman, and she is cruel in her retribution for any man's weakness. After all, she gave me the life that I never dreamed that I could have." She gave Sansa that considering gaze again, the one that warmed Sansa to her bones. "I hope that she can help you as well."

Looking down at her plate of food, Sansa felt a wave of conflicting thoughts and emotions rolling over her. Sansa didn't think she could be as brave as Margaery was – and she certainly wasn't as clever – but oh, how she wanted to be. She felt the ship rock under her and heard the waves slap against the hull of the ship and she saw the utter confidence and control in Captain Margaery's steps, and she wanted it so terribly bad. Could the sea really give her a new life though, as it had for the two other women on this ship?

Nearly an entire day passed before Sansa was given any true company. She wandered the room that she'd been placed in, unguarded and without anything tying her down, but hadn't bothered to try the door. She knew that it was locked, but she also knew that it was more for her safety than anything else. The one attempt on her earlier had been enough to instill any safeguards on her person in the Captain. The fact that the door was locked meant that their prisoner was not to be disturbed. It shouldn't have made Sansa feel any better, but it did. She was a prisoner, yes, but nothing terrible was to be done to her.

How so very different from the carefully scripted life she led with her fiancé…

And so Sansa spent her time examining the room until she was bored and then looking out the small port window. She'd been able to tell by the rocking of the boat that they were moving further out to sea. By the time she braved to glance through the window, she was left gaping at the rolling waves that the ship seemed to slip through. She had been on many ships before, thanks to the port in the city that her father governed over, but she'd never seen a ship that moved so seamlessly through the water like a snake through sand. But then she'd heard of all the stories about the _High Garden_. Apparently the ship lived up to those stories.

When she could see nothing but water for miles on out though, even watching them sail away grew tiresome and Sansa fell into a fitful, if not improper sleep. It was hard to look proper and decent when you were forced to sleep on a pile of ropes, she reasoned, as she drifted off. Dreams about her family came to her, her big brother searching for her and her little sister trying to steal away on the ship to join as well. In all the dreams, she wanted to scold her sister, Arya, but even the sight of her little sister in breeches and with a sword and calling her name made Sansa's heart swell in her sleep. When the dreams turned to her fiancé though, she grew restless and tossed about, stressed and confused about how she was supposed to feel.

"My lady?"

Sansa startled awake to find a gentle hand on her shoulder. When she blinked awake, she found a young girl standing before her, not the Captain. Sansa sat up and pulled away from the girl, not out of fear, but out of confusion of being woken up randomly. She was still on a pirate ship, after all. "Who are you?" Sansa demanded, trying her best to sound brave. "Are you a prisoner too?"

"Oh, no, my lady, no," the girl replied, looking surprised as well. She stood up straight and clasped her hands in front of her. Despite the extravagance of the female Captain of the ship, this girl came off as downright demure, proper even. She could've stood next to Sansa in town and she wouldn't have even blinked. What was this ship? "I'm the Captain's cousin, Alla." That was a slight shock in itself. This girl was the Captain's kin? The two did look similar in a way, but they acted completely different. Alla took a deep breath and stood up straight. "The Captain calls upon your presence in her private room. She asks if you would like to have dinner."

Sansa swallowed the knot in her throat, trying to shove any fear deep down. "Dinner?"

Alla gave her a curious look. "Surely my lady is hungry? It has been nearly a day since you've eaten. The Captain would like to apologize for taking so long to get things sorted. She does not want you to feel mistreated."

"I…" Mistreated? Sansa had been kidnapped! Being mistreated was par for the course, wasn't it? This was all sorts of confusing. Was her brother coming to find her? Was Joffrey? Sansa barely hid a shiver at the thought of her fiancé. What was coming to her when the fact that a pirate was calling on her didn't make her want to cry but the thought of her fiancé made her want to shake? "Yes, dinner would be…lovely."

With a bright smile appearing on her face, Alla bowed. "The Captain will be pleased."

She waited patiently as Sansa pulled herself to her feet and then straightened her clothes. Only then did she remember what she was wearing, nothing more than her nightgown, a bathrobe, and slippers. Her hair was a mess too, and she gingerly touched it and winced. She was having dinner with a pirate, for goodness' sake, but she couldn't bear the idea of looking like such a disaster while sitting in the same room as Captain Margaery. The young woman had been resplendent even in her pirate clothes, like she'd taken bits and pieces from the captains of other ships here and there to make her own outfit.

Alla seemed to catch scent of Sansa's sudden hesitance. "Oh, you need not worry about your appearance, Lady Stark. The Captain has set aside some time for you to clean yourself." She smiled shyly. "It's not much, being on a ship and all, but it's something." Feeling a tad bit better, Sansa nodded her head and began to follow the young girl out of the room and out onto the deck. Her eyes widened at the sight. The High Garden was larger than she'd anticipated and it was filled with life even at night as the crew ran it. She saw plenty of men walking about, shouting at each other, hauling lines, pushing barrels, and other things. Perhaps she shrank back at the sight of them, because Alla began to rush and smile even more pleasantly. "You do no need to be concerned with the men either. None of them will bother you. The Captain ensures the safety of all women aboard; lest any man wants to walk the plank, she says."

Biting her lip, Sansa could not help but keep an eye on the men until they stepped through another door and started down stairs. She kept her hands together as they walked into a small room where she could wash herself. No one else came inside after Alla shut the door and the girl was dutiful in adverting her gaze as Sansa stripped and began to clean her skin as best as she could. After pressing some sort of flowery scent on herself that Alla gave her, she took a brush and began to work at her hair. She wouldn't be able to put it into any of the intricate arrays that were in the style of her fiance's city, but she felt a hint of fondness at being able to allow her hair to rest over her shoulders. She had beautiful red hair that she'd inherited from her mother, something she didn't get to show off very often.

Before she could lament about the fact that she would still be in a nightgown and bathrobe, Alla held out a pretty light blue dress. "From the Captain." She gave an almost impish grin, different from all the looks she'd had before. "A part the spoils, you could say."

Meaning that the dress was stolen, just as Sansa had been. Still, it was better than nothing. She thanked the other girl and allowed Alla to help her into the dress. It was slightly smaller than what she was used to, being quite snug in the bosom, but the dress was beautiful. Sansa gave herself a few seconds to admire herself in the mirror. Her brothers would've gasped in horror if they'd seen her wear such a tightly knit dress in public. How many men would have stared at her? Then, she thought of the men on the ship and her shoulders sunk again. She didn't want any of them to stare at her. She was fine with Alla and the Captain, but the rest of them…

No, Captain Margaery promised her safety until Robb bartered for her. She would be as safe as one could be on a pirate ship, even if she was wearing a slightly scandalous outfit.

Nodding to Alla to let the other girl know that she was done, Alla walked out of the room again and through the ship. Sansa followed closely on her heels, still in her slippers, and kept her arms wrapped around her chest to make sure that she was covered as much as possible. Only a few of the crewmen actually glanced in her direction, quite a difference from what she was used to from sailors even in the Navy, but that still didn't make her any less nervous. She still felt out of sorts after all that had happened in the past day. This time yesterday, she'd been supping with her family. Now she was a prisoner, albeit a spoiled one, on the greatest pirate ship in history.

Alla stopped at a door and knocked, waiting to enter until she was told that she could come in. She gave Sansa a smile and waved her on in. Sansa opened her mouth and turned to question the girl when Alla shut the door, leaving Sansa alone in the room.

"I trust you feel at least a little better, yes?"

With a start, Sansa jumped around and saw Captain Margaery relaxing back in a chair behind a table. She had a leg thrown casually over one of the arms of the chair and she leaned diagonally in it, her other arm dangling over the side. The hat was gone and her hair was down, showing off every glorious wave of her light brown hair. The jacket she was wearing still hid the telltale signs of her female body and she was wearing breaches unlike most women, but there was no hiding just how beautiful she was. Despite the fact that she'd hidden her gender for so long, it was quite plain to see that she was very much a woman when looking her in the face.

An impish grin wound its way onto the Captain's face. "My apologies. I shouldn't have scared you like that." Her tone said that she felt guilty, but the look on her face said no such thing. She'd most likely found Sansa's jump to be amusing. Sansa couldn't stop the blush if she tried. She wanted to be brave, like her brother Robb, but it was hard to do that when she felt like she'd woken in a strange, new world.

Not knowing what to say, Sansa fiddled with her hands. "Alla said that you wanted to have dinner?"

"Yes, of course, I thought you might be hungry and I've no intention of making your duration here uncomfortable," Captain Margaery proclaimed as she swung her leg over the arm of the chair and then stood up. Sansa's heart jumped around frantically in her chest as the other woman swaggered towards her. She walked like a person that knew her way about a ship, but with extra hip movements that would've made Sansa's best friend Jeyne blush. "And truth be told, the company with someone as lovely as you sounded pleasant, my lady, if you can pardon my selfishness."

How Sansa did not jump again when Captain Margaery tucked a strand of her red hair behind her ear was beyond Sansa herself, but she felt all the air go out of her chest and her cheeks grow hot again. It was nothing like what the men earlier had tried on her. It wasn't…unpleasant. When the Captain smiled, it was filled with unusual delicacy and care. Her eyes were sharp and said everything that Sansa needed to know. If she needed space, then she would be given it. But strangely, she felt warmed by the other woman's touch and words.

And then, just she felt herself getting too hot under the gaze, Captain Margaery turned on her feet and walked back to her chair, waving a hand in the direction of the table. "Eat anything you like. Our cook may not be the chef that you're used to, but what he lacks in titles and experience he makes up for with creativity." The spread on the table wasn't as pristine and fancy as she was used to when it came to supping with her family or going out with Joffrey, but her stomach didn't care and neither did her eyes. Once Sansa looked at the food, she realized how famished she felt and she sat down, eager to begin.

As Sansa nervously put food on her plate (an appropriate amount for a woman that should not gain weight), Captain Margaery unbuttoned her dark green jacket and then tossed it on top of a chest that sat under a small window, not unlike the one in the room that Sansa had been kept in. She wore a simple white blouse underneath, tucked into her light green breeches. Now that the jacket was off, it was easier to see that she was a woman, as the swell of her breasts were more evident. Somehow, even in these clothes, she managed to look just as radiant as any woman of standing. Sansa could only imagine how stunning the Captain would've looked in a ball gown. She would've outshined any woman standing in the room with her.

"Have you always on the seas?" Sansa found herself asking.

Captain Margaery considered her words as she sat back down. "No, I was once like you."

Without meaning to, Sansa dropped her knife. "Like me?"

"I came from a very prominent family, very wealthy, very…stifling. I loved the sea growing up, but my parents thought that women on ships were unseemly. Sailing the seas was for men, so my brothers were all taught while I was left on shore and taught how to dance, sing, and look pretty. I was always so jealous of their adventures. My brother Loras is even in the Navy now."

The Captain smiled at that, though Sansa couldn't see why. The way she spoke of her brothers made it seem like she didn't begrudge them one bit, even still loved them in her own way, but the fact that one of her brothers probably wanted to arrest her sounded terribly tragic to Sansa. She couldn't help but picture Robb chasing down the High Garden on his ship, the Grey Wolf. The idea of anything happening to this woman suddenly didn't sound so appealing, even if it meant that Sansa could go home. But then… What would she be going home to: a harrowing life with a frightful fiancé that she didn't love and a life that she didn't know that she wanted?

"I was lucky that one of my father's men, an admiral and captain of his own ship, was fond of me. Whenever we went on trips, he taught me everything there was to know. His crew became something of a second family to me. I'd dress up like a boy and help them about whenever we were on the open sea." Captain Margaery picked up a mug and took a careful sip of it. She ran her finger around the lip of the mug, looking down into it like she could see her past in the liquid inside. "I knew it couldn't last forever though and that I'd eventually be forced into a life that I didn't want."

"But how did you go from sneaking around to being captain of a pirate ship?" Sansa asked incredulously.

Captain Margaery set the mug down and gave Sansa a guarded look. This was a woman that kept so many things close to the chest. She'd been able to hide her identity for years. She was incredible. "To be honest, so much has happened that I can barely remember, nor do I care to," the female captain admitted. "If you ask anyone in my family, they would tell you that I died, drowned at sea after being tossed overboard during a storm. Even the men that taught me everything I know think that I'm dead. It wounded me to leave my brothers behind and watch them fall into a life that was opposite of mine, but this…" She fingered the hilt of her sword that was hung over the back of her chair. "This is the life that I want, even without them. This ship is my home, my crew my family, the sea my love."

Remembering something from earlier, Sansa asked, "What about Alla? She said that she was your cousin."

At this, Captain Margaery smiled outright, and it was such a warm and proud smile that it nearly caught Sansa off guard. "All women given to the sea are cousins or sisters." The implication shook Sansa to her core. Of course she had heard the tales that women were bad luck on ships, but she could not fathom the idea that any honorable captain of a ship would allow a woman to be tossed overboard for simply existing. Robb would never do that. Then her thoughts turned to Joffrey and she shuddered. Captain Margaery tapped her fingers on her mug. "Those foolish men do not realize that the sea is a woman, and she is cruel in her retribution for any man's weakness. After all, she gave me the life that I never dreamed that I could have." She gave Sansa that considering gaze again, the one that warmed Sansa to her bones. "I hope that she can help you as well."

Looking down at her plate of food, Sansa felt a wave of conflicting thoughts and emotions rolling over her. Sansa didn't think she could be as brave as Margaery was – and she certainly wasn't as clever – but oh, how she wanted to be. She felt the ship rock under her and heard the waves slap against the hull of the ship and she saw the utter confidence and control in Captain Margaery's steps, and she wanted it so terribly bad. Could the sea really give her a new life though, as it had for the two other women on this ship?


End file.
